Planning: Mise en Scene

MISE EN SCENE:

As I explained in one of my earlier posts, mise es scene is setting,lighting,body language, facial expression, costume and Iconography.

MIS ES SCENE IN MY THRILLER:

In my 2 minute thriller, mis es scene will be crucially used every time and to make conventional to a thriller.


LIGHTING:
.Natural lighting  will be used when the girl arrives home from work. This will help convey the atmosphere and the mood that is taking place for the audience to watch. Also, lowkey lighting will be used when the antagonist is introduced in the thriller, this is used to make the antagonist make more intimidating to the audience as well as the film.

SETTING:
.The setting will be a Isolated house where the female character lives by herself. We chose this setting because it is very convetional to a thriller, since it is a Isolated location .The female character is living by herself,making the audience fear for her.

BODY LANGUAGE/FACIAL EXPRESSION:
.The body language of the female character will associate with fear and vulnerability, therefore her body language will be tensed up as she fears for her safety since she is physically vulnerable. Her facial exppression will be similar in terms of her fear, her face will portray a emotion of fear to the audience that are fearing for her as she sees the antagonist. As for the antagonist, the body language will portray intimidation to the audience as well as the female character, with the way he stands in the female character's bedroom . In other words, the body language of the antagonist will associate with their character through Intimidation. Facial expression of the antagonist will be a expression that strikes fear into the audience as well. It will be portrayed when he's in the girl's bedroom and when he stands in the kitchen of the female character.

COSTUME:
. The costume of the female character will be clothes of bright colours or white to connote her mental and physical vulnerability and innocence, in other words it will associate with the other mise es scenes that are being portrayed in the thriller.
 .As for the antagonist, he will have a dark costume in order to connote his dark motives and to portray his intimidation to the female character and the audience.

ICONAGRAPHY:
. The Iconography that we will use will help determine the action that happens in the thriller. For instance, when the girl has the keys to open her front door it is clear to the audience that the action will take place in the home within the 2 minutes. The Iconography will influence tension amongst the audience, to summarize the point  I am making on our use of Iconography and the impact that we intend it to have.

Planning: Editing

EDITING:

In our thriller, editing as well as cinematography will also be crucially used.

 We will use fast editing when the female character is seen and attacked by the antagonist this is in order to build up tension amongst the audience as well as suspense. Slow editing will be used when the female character falls to the floor this makes the fall more dramatic towards the audience, meaning that more tension and suspense is created.

A fade to black editing will be used when the viewing target audience sees the antagonist, this creates a good effect on the film, while it will create more suspense and anxiety amongst the audience.

In addition, a reaction shot will be used when the female character first sees the antagonist, this is for the audience to view her vulnerability throught the emotion she shows on her face. Most Importantly, it will influence a chilled response from the audience.

Lastly, a shot reverse shot will also be used to show the full view of the attack and torment, tension and fear between the antagonist and the female victim, creating more suspense among the audience.

Planning: Cinematography

PLANNING CINEMATOGRAPHY:

A close up shot will occur in the thriller when the female victim opens her eyes. This is because we want to show the audience that the female character has been having a nightmare making them think that the female character will be safe but that is only for a split second.

Also, extreme close up shot will be taken of the glass as it shatters to pieces to show the affection of the glass and it creates more fear and tension amongst the audience. This will enhance the audience's thought that the female character is in great danger, as the extreme close up of the glass shattering will represent the result of the

 In addition, a tilt shot will be taken of the female character's body to show that she is vulnerable this shows the audience that there is a great chance that the girl will come to harm due to her physical vulnerability.

 Further more, a mid shot would taken of the anatagonist standing outside the window of the female character this is in order for the audience to be introduced to the a new character that they will be unsure of therefore creating more tension.

A point of view shot will be used will be used when the victim wakes up from her nightmare, this will be used to petrify the audience with what the victim sees making them Imagine that their the female character in the film.

Planning:Opening scene narration

OPENING SCNEN NARRATION:

Our opening scene is of the thriller genre, that is based on a psychological element(sub-genre).

In the narrative, a girl will be going back home appearing to have a normal day(to the audience).There will be a lot of use of cinematography, as different film shots will be on the girl as she is walking home. As well as the sound which will be natural, with the sounds of shoes and wind when she is walking home.

The use of iconography will occur, when the girl arrives home. The girl enters house, that is in a Isolated street. At this point, she is the only person in the house. The audience would feel tension, for it is conventional in a thriller for a suspected female victim to be home alone, before harm comes to gher. So far, a realistic element has been shown portrayed in this 2 minute thriller opening. When the girl goes to bed, the audience will realise that she has dumped her boyfriend through a phone text, texting "It's over". A extreme close up shot will be shown of the phone text, to make more tension amongst the audience for the girl's safety.

Afterwards, the female character goes to bed, she then wakes up for a drink of water, in her kitchen. But as she takes her glass, she sees a haunting figure staring straight at her, this causes her to scream and drop her glass.When the glass drops, the girl wakes up and realises it was a dream to her relief and there will be less tension amongst the audience at this point feeling that the girl will be safe. Suddenly, the same haunting figure appears right in her bedroom making her scream fo her life... Lowkey lighting will be used on the haunting figure to make it more intimidating to the audience.

The audience would be terrified for nthe character as they will not view the continuation. The audience will also suspect the boyfriend she dumped, for there is no other logical reason for the girl to be suddenly tormented.

Planning:Final Idea

Our Final Idea:

The Idea my group is going to pursue is a thriller opening that has the sub-genre of psychological. The narrative

NARRATIVE:A girl is coming back home from work appearing to have a good normal day, until she dumps her boyfriend through a phone text.She clearly has no regrets about it as she goes home,  changes,eats and goes to bed. She then wakes up to have a drink of water downstairs, but as she opens the fridge she turns and sees a dark haunting figure she screams, when her glass drops she wakes up. To her relief it was only a dream but then she when she sits up in bed she find the same haunting figure right in her face which makes her scream again...

 Title: "It's never over"

Sub genre: psychological

Characters: Female victim,  Male antagonist.

Narrative structure: Aristotle and Barthes

MES:

Location: House
Iconography: Glass, keys,Phone
Costume of characters: Normal clothes with bright colours. (For the female character)
                                       Dark hoodie(For the male anatgonist)
Lighting: Natural lighting, Lowkey lighting
Body Language of key characters:
Female Victim: Small, physically weak, vulnerable
Male anatgonist:Physically strong, Intimidating

Advantage of this Idea: This is a simple narrative, that could easily be acted out by 2 people. Also, it would be easy to find a location for this thriller opening.

Disadvantage of this Idea: Actors may lack commitment to this film production. We may not be granted permission for the location we intend to film in. This naarative may be too typical for a audience to watch.

 This is my group's final Idea.

Planning: Premilinary task

Premilinary task;

PURPOSE:

The purpose of the premilinary task was for us to be introduced to the aspect of filming. In terms of cinematography and editing.

SCENARIO:

 The scenario we created was 2 students that are having a conversation about school work, with one of them being stressed and depressed due to deadlines coming up.  

GROUP ROLES FOR THE PREMILINARY TASK :
I had the group role of being the cameran for this premilinary task, I used different shots to film eanch scene in the premilinary task. This means that for the real production I am 99% likely to have that same role of being the cameraman, doing the film shots.

Ken had the role of being the editor of the premilinary task. With the use of final cut pro, Ken was able to put each film shots in order and make the video end on the amount of second that was assigned to us. Since he achieved the task of editing for the premilinary task.

Abdullah and Javel both acted in the premilinary task, but for the real production Javel will be the director and location manager and director. While, Abdullah will be the storyboard planner and producer.

DIFFICULTIES:

The difficulties in the premilinary task was that were pushed for time,  In other words we had to finsh filming within the short amount of time we were given. Also, we had to make our video land on the amount of 30 seconds, this was difficult because while making the video land on the assigned amount of seconds we had to delete sections where perfect aspects of cinematography was shown, therefore not much good use of cinematography would be shown in 30 seconds.

BENEFITS:
 The premilinary task has been beneficial for it has given us knowledge of how to use cinematography, everyone in the group has taken part in learning and gaining experiecne of use in filming.

 

Planning Production roles

PLANNING PRODUCTION ROLES:

While a production role of a film is taking place, there are at least seven main production roles that are crucial.

The cameraman/woman: This person films the action that takes place during a film. They have to work with the film director and the storyboard organizer, to see how they want the action to be filmed to get the right film shots, film angles and film movement.

 Sound technician: This person has to create the sound in the film for each scene, this includes the soundtrack theme for the film.This is in order to make the film more effective and impacting to the audience. Also, the sound has to have a connection with the film genre.

Actor: The actors have to play the role of the characters that are given to them by the director. Crucially, in all aspects the actors in every context have to be in their character's frame.

Director: The directors are the people who make the characters. They essentially have the overall say in what happens in the film, where it happens and how it happens. They are in control over all aspects of film making. This is in order to make the film a good representation towards the film distributor.

Location manager: The role of this person is to find a location where the action will take place. A risk assessment has to take place too see whetehr the place is safe enough for the filming to take place. The location they find must be effective enough for the genre of the film.

Editor: The role of this person is to edit the video of the filming in as way that is effective on the audience. They will have to work with the director on how they want the filming to be shown to the audience so that It won't confused the audience.

Producer: The role of this person is to manage the budget of the film production. They supervise the making of the film. They present the film to the film distributor in order to gain investment. This person provide the equipment for the film to the directors, editors etc.

Roles within my group:

Javel: Director and Location manager
          The reason being for this is because Javel has a natural technique of putting forward good Ideas  . He likes to take charge for the better. Also, Javel has a great sense of the location for the action to take place and how it will be more Impacting to the audience.

Ken: Assitant cameraman and Editor
         Reason being is because Ken has a perfect understanding of the way a camera should be used to film a scene, which is why he is going to assist me in the camerawork. Also, Ken has perfection when it comes to using softwares to edit videos of a film, this is why he is the editor for our thriller.

Me: Lighting technician and cameraman
       I have a perfect understanding of which lighting would make the action more impacting to the audience which is the reason for me being the lighting technician. In addition, I can perfectly film scenes in the required movement, angle and shot which makes me the main cameraman.

Abullah: Storyboard Planner and Producer
               Abdullah is perfect at organising a timeline of any narrative,which is why he's our storyboard planner, he will be mainly working with the director. Also Abdullah is a perfect supervisor and managing important projects which is the reason being for him ton be the producer.

Developing Ideas

There were 4 choices my film group had to put in our thriller. All the Ideas were based on a psychological element.

Idea 1:

NARRATIVE: A young lady moves Into her new house, to live on her own. One night, her doorbell rings. When she opens the door shes sees a little abadoned girl, she shows sympathy and later adopts her. The little girl tells the lady that her mother attempted to murder her and she has no other family memebers that she knows of. The little girl seems to have a mind set that is tormented. The girl also says she has a friend that is invisible and draws lot of pictures that has disturbing content of horrific, gruesome killing and extrme violent pictures, this horrifies the young lady.  One night, the young lady has a dream of a flashback memeroy when she was pregnant, she was too afraid to do the abortion so she gaver birth to the child in a toilet, but afterwards she chokes the child to death and leaves in the toilet. Since that night, the young lady's dreams become more horrifiying and realistic with what the child said about her mother, for she did the same thing as the little's girl mother. She then realises that the child appears to be the older sprit of the child she gave to and murdered and has come back to haunt her.

Title: "The Unborn"

Sub-genre: Psychological thriller

Characters: Evil child, female victim

Narrative Structure: Aristotle and Barthes

MES:

Location: House, park, pubilc toilet.
Iconography: Blood, Knife, Colur Pencils, Papers
Costume of characters: White costume with black eyes make-up for the evil child
                                       Bright colours clothing for the female victim(young lady)

Lighting: Lowkey lighting, background lighting, top and under lighting.
Body language of key characters:
Evil child: small, physically weak, mysterious and confident.
Female victim: Quite small and short, clueless, Innocent, physically wear and vulnerable.

Advantage of this Idea: Conventional to a thriller taht is psychological. The Idea of evil can be used to manipulate the audience and create fear and also have clear narrative structure so that the viewers can understand.

Disadavntage of this Idea: However, we may not receive allowance for a child to act as a evil child and it would be difficult for a child to put themself in a evil portrayal. Also, the child might be mentally Immature for that role.


Idea 2:

Narrative: A couple cannot give birth to a child of their own. So they try to adopt a child Instead. The couple run into a fortune teller, who tells them their destiny and is petrified by it saying a great danger is entering into their lives. But the couple are not fazed by the fortune teller and they are only more determined to adopt a child. The couple goes to a home for orphaned children, the wife spots a small and lonely child in a corner, she shows motherly sympathy to the child and wants to adopt him but the father is not fully convinced, the wife Insists, so they adopt the child with the father still in 2 minds. As soon as the child moves in with the couple conflict occurs between them their pet dog runs away and never returns. Suddenly, the father has an unexpected and untimely death,afterwards the small child manages to torture and kill the wife, he could have doine the sam toi the husband.

Title: Restless

Sub-genre: Psychological

Characters: Child(demented, demon), Female victim, Father/Husband

Narrative structure: Propp or Todorov

MES:
          .Location-Family house
          . Iconography blood knife which is used to kill
          . Costume the child is made to look demented and the mother costume of a typical victim
            (simple clothing light
          .Dark lighting (setting)

Advantage of this Idea: It is very simple and it will be easy to get a child female victim.

Disadvantage of this Idea:
                                          . Difficult getting a child to play that role
                                           . Might not get allowance to film in a children's home
                                           . Difficult to find a person who can play a fortune teller really well.


Idea 3:

Narrative:  People are studying at a library. All of a suden the electricity goes off. Murders take place but it is not yet known until the light come back on. There is lots of screaming and running for the entrance of the library is locked. In the process, more murders occur until there are six people left. Who are the murderers? Three people turn out to be the murders. One is the typical looking anatagonist. Another is a female who looks seducive another is a young smart looking boy who looks lie he has a silent personality. Fortunately, the 3 protagonists manged to stay alive as the police intervene and kill the 3 murderers in self-defence.

Title: Too Silent

Sub genre: Crime

Characters: 14 year old boy, Seductive blondie, Typical man looking anatagonist

Narrative structure: Todorov

MES:
         Location: Library
         Iconography:Knife, Gun, Phone
         Costume: Black suit for the typical male anatagonist. Red shirt for the female antagonist to                        make her look more seductive. Dark coulured unifrom for the young boy who is also    an antagonist .

Advantage of this Idea; The charcters will be teenagers, who are mentally and physical Immature to play the characters.

Diadvantage of this Idea:  We might not be granted permision to film on library premisis actors might lack commitment to this task.

We will most likely follow Ken's Idea because the narrative is the most understanding and the location will be more acessible than for the other thriller Ideas.

This has taught me to consider the advantages, but more Importantly the disadvantages of an Idea taht comes to my mind.

Research:Graph Feedback

Graph Feedback:


In this post, I am now going to reflect on some answers I received for my questionaire, through graphs.


WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE FILM GENRE?:

These are results I received from asking the question what is your favourite genre film?. The results show that most people's favorite film genre is thriller, which is what I'm working on. This motivates me to justify, most people's preference of thriller movies by producing an epic 2 minute thriller. While, trying to persuade other people into making thriller their prefered film genre. These results also show me that thriller is a well respected film genre and I'll have to justify it in 2 minutes. This question will help our group to make our thriller convetional to the genre and relating it to our target audience.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE SUB GENRE IN THRILLER?:
These are other results I received from asking the question, Whai is your favourite sub-genre thriller?. Results show that most people see psychological as their favourite sub-genre within thriller. This is the most Important question we ask of our target audience, as we want to put in a theme in our thriller that the audience can relate to and the themes that majority would require. In addition, we colud make Ideas that relate to the theme of psychology.

 

WHAT CONVENTIONAL CHARACTER IN THRILLER APPEALS TO YOU THE MOST?:

 These graphs represent answers of another question asked "What conventional character in a thriller appeals to you the most? The results show that the antagonist is the most appealing character for people in characters. This means we need to highlight and portray the antagonist in a way that appeals to the audience and gives them a chilled response of fearing them , which will essentially make a good 2 minute thriller. Results also show that the victim in thrillers is the second most appealing in thrillers. This means we have to portray the victim in the same valued way as the antagonist, but in this context the response would be in fear and remorse for them, as their murder or torture will appeal to the audience.

 

In conclusion, we will try to produce a thriller in a psychological perspective to make it complex and full of tension for the audience. Also, the characters will be portrayed in a way that fulfils the audience expectations.

Questionaire and feedback

Questionaire:

The Importance of primary research is to find out the main requirements of what your target audience want to see in your project.

Regarding making a thriller, I will need to carry out a questionaire ,that makes me known to the requirements of my targeted audience on what they want to see in my thriller. I mainly asked people who are aged 14 and over. The reason is because most thrillers tend to be watched by that age group. In addition, thrillers are mostly certificated at 15 or 18.
1. What is your gender?
Male
Female
2. What is your age range?
6-10
11-15
16-20
20+
3. What element makes you realise that you are watching a thriller?
Iconography
Theme
Characters
Sound
4. What theme in a thriller makes you instantly attracted to it?
Obsession
Vengeance
Death
Crime
5. What sub-genre do you prefer to watch?
Psychological

Horror
Erotic
Other
6. What type of sound in thriller do you prefer to hear?
Off screen sound
Parallel sound
Contrapuntal sound
7. What age rating of thriller would you to watch?
12
12A
15
18
8. What conventional editing in thriller excites you more?
Fast
Slow
9. What setting do you think is conventional enough for thrillers?
Forest
Basement
Isolated house
10. What Iconography do you prefer to see in your thrillers?
Phone
Gun
Knife
11. What gender of victims in thrillers would you prefer to see?
Male
Female
12. What gender of the protagonist would you prefer to see?
Male
Female
13. What gender of the antagonist would you prefer to see?
Male
Female
14. What body language would you prefer to see from a antagonist?
Good
Bad
15. What conventional editing in thriller do you prefer?
Fast
Slow
16. What film shot would you prefer to see of a protagonist?
Mid close up
Close up
Extreme close up
17. What film shot would you prefer to see of a victim?
Mid close up
Close up
Extreme close up
18. What film shot would you prefer to see of an antagonist?
Mid close up
Close up
Extreme close up
19. What type of lighting would you prefer in thrillers?
Low-key lighting
Under Lighting
20. What character in thrillers do you like the most?
Protagonist
Victim
Antagonist

Research:Typography

 

Typography:

Typography is the style of writing that is used to associate with the genre of the film . 
Typography helps the audience to understand the genre of a film, more importantly typography of a film title could be written in a style that connects with the target audience. Typography also helps to connote themes.

Colours of Typography:

The colours of typography are mainly used to collabarate with the style of writing in giving the audience an impression of what genre the film is going to be. Also the colours connotes the themes that will occur in the film. For Instance, if the colour of typography is red with a font that looks haunting if will connote death. This means the audience could relate to a film due to the typography.

Size of Typography:

The size of the title(in movies) will depend on the impact it makes on the audience meaning a movie title can become a small size, as long as it makes impact on the audience which always happens because the main aim is to stand out.

Examples:

In the opening of the movie seven, this exact font is shown in a distance with a dark background surrounding it. There is fading effect to the title which implies that the film is going to be dark and scary. Also, the font sets the atmosphere and the mood of the film. It also partly sets tenison and anxiety amongst the audience. The main importance of the title is that it stands out. Furthermore, the colour of the title, white connotes innocence and vulnerability which will be portrayed in the film. Although, in the opening credits the title was small, it still made an impact on the audience with the emotion of tension.



 Another movie example involving typography is Taken. The main colurs that are shown in the title are red and white. The reason for this is becase the colours connote danger, vulnerability and death, these themes are shown in the plot.

For my thriller, my group will have to produce a font that will have an emotional impact on the viewers. Also, the font and colour of the font will need to help the viewing audience relate to the thriller.

The typography we plan to use in our thriller we associate with the thought of death so we plan to use writing of blood for our title. The reason being is to fulfil conventions of our thriller.